Censorship of Ideas

[gilbertus1801]

Thanks for taking care of this Adrian. As a member of Royal Holloway Christian Union I can say we're all grateful for your hard work in writing the email. It appears however there has been a miscommunication in what the complaint was. We have heard no major details from the students union about the nature of the complaint, and i won't go into too much detail about the situation, although I would like to categorically deny that our speaker claimed that the victims in the tsunami were being directly punished by the disaster. As Adrian pointed out, that would be extremely disrespectful, and I personally would be offended at such a statement. What the speaker argued, as much as you all will disagree due to your religious worldview, was that the state of the world is such that suffering is caused by the [GENERAL] wrongdoing in the world, in all natures of it, not just a tsunami. This is common Christian belief, and although you will perhaps disagree with such a view, as I attended the event myself I can say that the speaker did not say that the tsunami was a direct punishment on the individuals affected by the tsunami, and I can categorically say the CU would not have invited a speaker with views like that to speak at RHUL. The nature seems to be that somebody didn't like what he said, which was standard evangelical theology which, whether you agree with it or not, is a mainstream christian belief, and therefore complained. It seems at this stage that this is an afront to freedom of speech. I am a firm believer in free speech and dialogue/debate between different religious worldviews, I am not a postmodernist, and although I disagree with the secular students society at RHUL in my worldview, I would never attempt to stifle free debate at the college, and have enjoyed attending debates with them in the past. Sorry for writing on an athiest forum, just thought I would help clarify.

[Tiberius]

Thanks for the clarification. I was informed through the roommate of someone at the talk, and as such I made sure to only refer to the claim as a possibility, not one that was verified. I am relieved that something as disrespectful as that wasn't said, but it only shows how far the Student Union has over-reacted.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Good letter Adrian,imagine how much better it would have been if you went to a real university.

runs

What is wrong with Royal Holloway exactly? My department (Information Security) is world renowned...

NOTHING.I was taking the mick, sheesh.


Mate I went to [ the also excellent but obscure] University Of Adelaide. I wouldn't dare criticise anyone else's perfectly good university.

(I was taught by a world renowned Anthropologist who founded the department at Adelaide)

[LEDO]

What more context do you want? A Christian speaker said something stupid, someone complained, and they got banned.

That is how it generally works in the "real" politically correct world. The other option is to put everyone through sensitivity training which is akin to a root canal.

[downbeatplumb]

What more context do you want? A Christian speaker said something stupid, someone complained, and they got banned.

That is how it generally works in the "real" politically correct world. The other option is to put everyone through sensitivity training which is akin to a root canal.

in my workplace its called equality and diversity training.
yes itslike having dental surgery but some people really do need it.